Going through an illness and then death of a close friend has changed my attitudes to friendship enormously.

Nothing in this world happens without a reason. That we are all exactly where we are supposed to be, and that the pieces of the puzzle have a tendency to come together when you least expect it.

Life, Steffi has learned, carries on around the pain, making room for it, absorbing it until it becomes part of the daily fabric, wrapping itself around you and lodging itself in your heart.

You are the best person I've met in years, and if I'd met you in a year's time, or maybe even a few months, I know we could be happy together, but I can't give you what you need.

Every time my dreams threaten to become reality, something always happens and I end up alone.

As Carrie Fisher once said in a film, everyone thinks they have good taste and a sense of humour.

Whether you are inspired or not, the only way to unlock your creativity, is to start writing.

Fantasies are absolutely safe, as long as you never try to make them a reality.

I think relationships are very difficult. It's very easy to get swept away with excitement, glamour, and passion. I think the trick is to look for friendship rather than passion.

Anyone can live in a house, but homes are created with patience, time and love.

It's about thinking that being blonde and slim and perfect will automatically bring you happiness, and then discovering that life is full of as many disappointments as there were before.

[H]er spare strange beauty was not that of a woman, nor even of a statue, but that of the Platonic absolute of which all beauty is but a shadow in a cave, cast by the Fire beyond fire.

How do you know you're not dreaming? Or not dead?

Those who love the rain much cannot long remain dry!

Every emancipation has in it the seeds of a new slavery, and every truth easily becomes a lie.

Bottomless wonders spring from simple rules, which are repeated without end.

So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation's hoop I thrust it in the earth.

The wider the author's arsenal of tools and the better technically equipped the storyteller is, the better the tale will be.

I don't write on demand - I wait for inspiration to come.

I've spent the last year listening to Americans, and the state of the union that George W. Bush lives in is very different from the state that most hardworking Americans are living in.

There is an unfortunate disposition in a man to attend much more to the faults of his companions which offend him, than to their perfections which please him.